Starmer to announce plans for NHS to put 'care on people's doorsteps'

The NHS will shift a huge amount of care from hospitals into new community health centres to bring treatment closer to people's homes and cut waiting times, Keir Starmer will promise today.

- Denis Campbell

The prime minister will outline radical plans to give patients in England much easier access to GPs, scans and mental health support in facilities that are open 12 hours a day, six days a week. The health service must "reform or die", he will say, when he announces his 10-year health plan.

But experts said the planned changes could be undermined by staff shortages, tight public finances, a lack of premises in which to host one-stop shop-style "neighbourhood health services" and a public backlash at hospitals being downgraded.

"Our 10-year health plan will fundamentally rewire and future-proof our NHS so that it puts care on people's doorsteps, harnesses game-changing tech and prevents illness in the first place," Starmer is expected to say at a launch event in London with Wes Streeting, the health secretary.

"That means giving everyone access to GPs, nurses and wider support all under one roof in their neighbourhood, rebalancing our health system so that it fits around patients' lives, not the other way round."

Writing on the Guardian website, Streeting said the NHS - which has been given a £52bn funding increase under Labour - must change dramatically to ensure its own future.